CSU running back Dee Hart eludes tacklers in the first quarter against CU at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2014, in Denver. (Steve Nehf, The Denver Post)

Colorado State running back Dee Hart, who ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns in his first game for the Rams Friday night, Monday was named Mountain West Conference offensive player of the week and senior kicker Jared Roberts was named special teams player of the week.

Hart’s 139 rushing yards equaled the top mark for a CSU running back in his first game. Ron Harris ran for 139 on Sept. 14, 1974 at New Mexico.

“I think he’ll be the first to tell you, our team players of the week were the offensive line,” said CSU coach Jim McElwain. “He was the recipient of some great work up front. As you guys know, we lost some really good running backs from a year ago (Kapri Bibbs and Donnell Alexander) and I thought both Dee and Treyous (Jarrells) stepped up and played how we expected them to play. That’s a great honor and believe me, I’m happy as heck for Dee and really that offensive line.”

“I am truly sorry for what I said,” Lupfer said in a statement released by the Rams. “It was wrong and those words do not represent who I am and what I believe in. I apologize for the embarrassment I caused for Colorado State University, this team & my family.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote this “What to watch” regarding Division I men’s basketball along on the Front Range. Editors could not find room in the print edition of The Denver Post, so thought I’d run it here.

Compared to a half-dozen years ago, men’s college basketball along the Front Range appears very much on the upswing with big crowds and important victories. Here are some things to keep tabs on during 2013-2014:

FINAL SEASON FOR DINWIDDIE?
At some point this winter, Colorado fans may start chanting, ‘One more year! One more year!” in a plea for 6-foot-6 point guard Spencer Dinwiddie to return for his senior season.

Some wondered if Dinwiddie might look into leaving for the NBA last spring following his sophomore year. But the Los Angeles native made just 41.5 percent of his field-goal attempts for 2012-13, hitting only 33.8 percent from 3-point range.

If Dinwiddie improves his shooting and also his assists-to-turnover ratio (it was 99 assists to 73 turnovers last season), he may well join Alec Burks (2011) and Andre Roberson (2013) as NBA first-round picks this spring. Pro scouts are said to love his potential.

That would make three first-rounders in four years from Colorado. Amazing.

My story on former CU coach Dan Hawkins, now the rookie head coach of the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes, is in the Sunday paper and here.

The story touches on the Alouettes’ 1-1 start, with both games against Winnipeg, and after watching Montreal’s home-opener loss to the Blue Bombers on Thursday night, with the TSN feed being carried on ESPN2, it was interesting to contrast the reaction with what we’re used to down here. Video of quarterback Anthony Calvillo’s post-game comments at his locker (“disgusting”) was posted on the team web site, as were comments from other players. And then the team has posted its practice schedule for the week, noting the workouts are open to the public. The Alouettes’ offices are in Olympic Stadium, but they practice at Stade Hebert in St. Leonard and play their games at Percival Molson Stadium on the McGill University campus.

In my many years of covering hockey, I was in Canada often and noted the level of interest in the CFL — yes, it’s on the second tier, and the league often struggles financially, but they care. And care a lot. To many, it’s even bigger than curling — and I’m being serious, because curling is huge. I enjoyed watching CFL games on television up there almost as much as “Corner Gas,” the tremendous, wryly funny sitcom set in Dog River, Saskatchewan, which meant that the good folks were fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Grey Cup is on my bucket list. I actually like some of the CFL rules better than traditional U.S. rules, especially the allowing of forward motion at the snap, which essentially gives receivers a running start before the snap and before they reach the line of scrimmage.

Through two games, the Alouettes’ leading rushers are Noel Devine (14 carries, 65 yards), a second-year pro from West Virginia; and Brandon Whitaker (10-33), in his fifth season from Baylor. Calvillo, the veteran who was the CFL’s first-team all-star in 2012, is 36-63, for 385 yards and two touchdowns, with three interceptions. His top receiver has been slotback S.J. Green, from South Florida, with eight catches for 150 yards and both of the passing touchdowns. The Alouettes’ top tackler has been 5-9 strong-side linebacker Chip Cox, from Ohio U., with 14 tackles.

Hawkins’ staff is a mix of newcomers to the Canadian game and veterans: Read more…

Today’s polls are the last before Sunday’s 6 p.m. announcement of the first BCS rankings. The only rankings that really matter are Nos. 1 and 2 and if the rankings were released today, it would surely be Alabama, Oregon, currently one-two in the USA Today coaches rankings, which makes up a third of the BCS formula.

I talked to Jerry Palm, the BCS guru out of Indiana, and he says South Carolina could jump Oregon in the first rankings. That will certainly happen if South Carolina wins Saturday at LSU, No. 8 in the coaches poll. Oregon is idle.

I had friends in college who got in the kind of trouble Casey Pachall has been in but they weren’t fifth in the nation in pass efficiency.

Thursday’s suspension of Texas Christian’s junior quarterback throws the Big 12 race for a loop, although it may have saved Pachall’s life. Coach Gary Patterson suspended Pachall after a drunk driving arrest early Thursday morning, less than a year after a positive drug test.

Pachall lives with ex-TCU linebacker Tanner Brock, who was one of the Horned Frogs arrested in a campus-wide drug bust in February. At the time Pachall admitted drug use to police.

This year’s Heisman Trophy race seemed like a hot potato with Matt Barkley, then Montee Ball, then Landry Jones throwing it away, leaving it as wide open as I’ve ever seen.

It’s wide open no more.

Geno Smith went Pop Warner on Baylor Saturday. The numbers are too boggling to comprehend: 45-of-51 for 656 yards and eight touchdowns with no interceptions. It’s not like West Virginia poured it on. It only won, 70-63.

I wanted to blame Baylor’s defense. But it returned its top five defensive backs from last year’s 10-3 team. Obviously something’s missing. The Bears narrowly escaped Louisiana-Monroe the week before, 47-42. But I couldn’t. Watching Smith in the second half, he was absolutely pinpoint perfect.

Now he’s having a season for the ages. After wins over Marshall, James Madison, Maryland and Baylor, Smith is an astounding 141-of-169 (.834) for 1,728 yards with 20 TDs and, get this, ZERO interceptions. No other candidate is even close.

Out from the gray cloud that was the pitiful Big East, Smith will be able to impress more against a tougher Big 12 schedule. The Mountaineers visit No. 12 Texas next Saturday then travel to Texas Tech before hosting seventh-ranked Kansas State and No. 15 TCU before visiting Oklahoma State.

If Smith puts up half these numbers and keeps the No. 9 Mountaineers in the top 10, he’ll lock up the Heisman by mid-November.

Today’s college football schedule stinks. There are only two games matching Top 25 teams: No. 9 West Virginia at No. 25 Baylor and No. 14 Ohio State at No. 20 Michigan State. And since Ohio State at Michigan State is in the Big Ten it doesn’t really count.

Here are the games I find the most intriguing:

No. 12 Texas (3-0) at Oklahoma State (2-1), 5:50 p.m. MDT. These two teams have had wild games in the past and this one should be, too. Oklahoma State appears to have major defensive problems and Texas seems to have solved its offensive problems from last year with red-hot sophomore quarterback David Ash. Stillwater is a real tough place to play, much harder than Austin, and a night start will make it even crazier.

No. 18 Oregon State (2-0, 1-0 Pac-12) at Arizona (3-1, 0-1). Are the Beavers that good? No other team in the country has beaten two top 20 teams this year and Arizona was ranked until getting drubbed at Oregon last week. Both teams are the most improved in the conference and I want to see how OSU’s revamped defense does against Arizona’s explosive spread offense. I want to see if said spread offense can show a pulse in the red zone after going zip-for-6 at Oregon.

No. 25 Baylor (3-0) at No. 9 West Virginia (3-0), 10 a.m. West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith is the leader by default of a dwindling Heisman Trophy race. Baylor misses last year’s defense as much as Robert Griffin III. Smith could run up big numbers and put himself in prime position for the next two months of the Heisman watch. If he flops, he’ll join the likes of Matt Barkley, Montee Ball and Landry Jones on the outside looking in.

Everyone always compares first-year coaches and their progress. How about we check up on second-year coaches? For Colorado, as you can imagine, it isn’t pretty.

Jon Embree is one of 21 coaches in their second year at their school. He is the only one who’s 0-3. Think he had a tough rebuilding project? How about Minnesota’s Jerry Kill? The Gophers were picked 11th in the Big Ten, only ahead of Indiana, and are 3-0. OK, they won at UNLV and at home against New Hampshire, an FCS school, and Western Michigan.

But doesn’t that compare to Colorado State, Sacramento State and Fresno State?

In my 10 Questions Facing the Pac-12 on Aug. 31, I asked whether Oregon or USC would play for the national title. I said no. I didn’t trust Oregon running the table with a freshman quarterback and I thought USC’s NCAA-depleted depth would make it stumble sooner or later.

Turns out, it was sooner rather than later.

Still, I don’t see USC’s title hopes dashed after Saturday’s loss to Stanford, nor do I think quarterback Matt Barkley is out of the Heisman race. USC dropped to 12th in the coaches poll, one of the three elements in the BCS formula. No. 1 Alabama or No. 2 LSU will knock each other out when they meet in Baton Rouge Nov. 3. USC hosts No. 3 Oregon on that same day.

No. 4 Florida State finishes the season at Virginia Tech and Maryland before hosting Florida. No. 5 Oklahoma has a brutal schedule — with Notre Dame in the middle — and I don’t see any of the rest in the top 10 going unbeaten.

In three of its last four games, USC plays Oregon, UCLA and Notre Dame, all likely to be ranked, and all likely to catapult the Trojans over others if they win.

As for Barkley, there is no Heisman race. It’s wide open it hasn’t even started yet. West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith is putting up numbers but has played no one and Oregon’s De’Anthony Thomas must share the ball with too many weapons at Oregon. Jonathan Fields? Sure, if UCLA makes a run at the Pac-12 crown. Yeah, I don’t see it, either.

But USC’s loss has made the conference race as interesting as it has in years, probably before Pete Carroll arrived in 1991. The only thing we know is what the worst team in the league is.

Regarding CU, Yahoo! wrote: “Folsom Field, home of the Colorado Buffaloes, is one of the most underrated venues in college sports. The fans here always cheer hard and loud, and they are quite respectful and friendly to visiting fans.”

USC — Coach Lane Kiffin says Trojans won’t be distracted by Sunday’s L.A. Times report that a member of the L.A. County assessor’s office gave former tailback Joe McKnight cash and perks totalling thousands of dollars. USC is still on probation for NCAA violations over former tailback Reggie Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo.

BCS Championship: Alabama vs. Louisiana State. LSU’s defense is so scary fast. I can’t pick against any team that has only given up two offensive touchdowns in a game twice all year, and none since a 47-21 win at West Virginia, Sept. 24.

Sugar Bowl: Houston vs. Michigan. Losing its SEC’s anchor, Sugar gets first at-large pick and will likely take red-hot Michigan, with its 10-2 record and a massive fan base that hasn’t been to a BCS bowl since the Rose Bowl after the 2006 season.

The Sugar will pick its second at-large team after the Fiesta Bowl and will likely take unbeaten Houston, the top-ranked team from a non automatic-qualifying conference.

Arizona — Athletic director Greg Byrne announces hiring of Rich Rodriguez via Twitter. Five weeks of silence ended by hiring the failed Michigan coach who had three straight 11-win seasons at West Virginia and took the Mountaineers to within one win of the BCS Championship game.

Rodriguez, however, comes with some baggage. He put Michigan on three years probation for “minor offenses” of failing to monitor assistant coaches and exceeding practice times. He also had the worst defense in Michigan history.

However, the spread offense that worked so well at West Virginia and didn’t hit stride at Michigan should fit in Arizona. His only problem is he has spent his entire coaching career in the Eastern Time Zone and will have to establish some Western recruiting ties.

With Boise State’s second straight pratfall and Stanford’s convincing loss to Oregon, the BCS bowl match-ups are starting to take shape. Four weeks remain, counting conference championships, but here’s my projections for the five games:

BCS Championship — Louisiana State vs. Oklahoma. I’m a defensive guy and Oklahoma’s defense is a whole lot better than Oklahoma State’s. In fact, 100 teams have a better defense than Oklahoma State’s. And if Oklahoma wins at Boone Pickens Stadium in front of a national TV audience on Dec. 3, I’m betting voters put it ahead of Alabama and Oregon, which both lost to LSU.

Sugar Bowl — Houston vs. Alabama. With its Southeastern Conference anchor and already losing LSU to the BCS Championship, Sugar Bowl will certainly take Alabama. Houston, currently 11th in the BCS rankings, will be the highest-ranked team from a non-qualifying school that won its conference. (Bye-bye Boise State and TCU.)

Fiesta Bowl — Stanford vs. Oklahoma State. This year it’s the Fiesta’s turn to get the first at-large pick. It’ll take Stanford to pit against its Big 12 anchor, the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State loser. The Sugar Bowl picks second and will take undefeated Houston and what is now the second highest-scoring team (54.7 points per game) in history.

Rose Bowl — Michigan State vs. Oregon. Wisconsin will overtake reeling Penn State in the Leaders Division and I’m precariously taken Michigan State and its third-ranked defense in the title game over Wisconsin. Oregon can get crushed by USC Saturday and still win the Pac-12 North. It will likely play the Pac-12 Championship at home against a coach who’s on the hot seat.

Orange Bowl — West Virginia vs. Clemson. Shouldn’t the BCS have a rule that a team must not only win its conference but also be ranked to earn a $14 million payday? I’m taking West Virginia (3-2) to win the Big Least after first-place Cincinnati (3-1) lost quarterback Zach Collaros for the season to an ankle injury in Saturday’s loss to West Virginia. The Mountaineers have only Pitt at home after this Saturday’s bye and South Florida on the road and own the tie-breaker against Cincy and surprising Rutgers (3-2). Clemson goes as the Orange Bowl’s ACC anchor.

This is very fluid, and I’ll update each Monday. If I could’ve written this blog with a No. 2 pencil, I would have.

Wyoming _ The biggest crowd in Wyoming history is expected for the 5:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday with No. 9 Nebraska so the Wyoming athletic department is urging fans to arrive early.

It’s impossible to get there too early. The parking lots and will call windows will open at 8 a.m. With a turnout of red expected by Nebraskans, Cowboys fans are urged to wear gold.

New Mexico _ Deon Long, one of the few bright spots for the winless Lobos, has been added to the Biletnikoff watch list for the nation’s top wide receiver. The transfer from West Virginia is second in the MW with 88.3 yards a game.

San Diego State _ Rocky Long didn’t know where he would find any receivers going into the year. Colin Lockett, a sophomore who wasn’t listed on the pre-season two-deep, was added to the Biletnikoff watch list Friday. He is third in the MW with 84.7 yards a game.

TCU _ Now that Dan Beebe is out as Big 12 commissioner, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports there may be new interest by the league in the Horned Frogs. Beebe had said he was only interested in new TV markets. TCU’s Big East, destination, meanwhile is most uncertain.

The Fort Worth school has only tried to get into the Big 12 since the Southwest Conference dissolved in the mid 1990’s.

UNLV _ Daniel Harper, one of those fifth-year transfers who already has his degree from another school, is starting to make an impact at safety for the Rebels. He graduated from USC and wasn’t a big Lane Kiffin fan.

“I wished (Kiffin) all the best, but I’m a grown man now, I’m a college graduate, and sometimes you have to make adult decisions, and this is one of them,” Harper told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

LaMichael James is just one of the many talents that reside in Oregon's backfield.

A look around the Pac-12:

• Oregon. The national runner-ups should be even better in the backfield this year. Not only is quarterback Darron Thomas back but so is Heisman finalist LaMichael James and his backup, Kenjon Barner, whose 6.1-yards-per play average topped James’ 5.9.

But now the tailback position adds freshmen Tra Carson, who broke James’ single season rushing record in high school last year, and De’Anthony Thomas, who switched his commitment from USC to Oregon.

Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin said Monday that the Aggies have no plans to switch conferences. But A&M regents voted Monday to give Loftin permission to continue talks with SEC officials.

I’m starting to feel like the entire college football scene is on a giant fault line. An earthquake hits and Colorado and Utah are on the Pacific Coast and Nebraska moves east.

Now there are more tremors. The ground is shaking all over the country and no more than in College Station, Texas. And if an earthquake hits in Aggieville, you know the biggest tremors will find their way to Walnut Creek, Calif.

The office of Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott will have a higher light bill this month. If you’ve charted Scott’s two-year tenure, he’s as pro active as he was when he used to rush the net as a pro tennis player. Have a Pac-12 souvenir? Keep it. It might be worth something some day. There may not be many more.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.